Comisario Montalbano: Excursion to Tindari

This is another very good episode in the Montalbano series. A complicated tale that begins with the murder of a thirty-something Lothario, and ends up as a tale of corruption involving a surgeon (Giovannı Moschella) and an ageing Mafia boss (Francesco Sineri).

Montalbano (Luca Zingaretti) takes the case lightly at first, but as the strands unravel, he realises that its resolution involves a scandal that implicates a large proportion of Sicilian and Italian high society. Needless to say he uncovers the truth behind the plot, with the invaluable assistance of Mimi Augello (Cesare Bocci).

This episode contains several incidental pleasures, most notably a subplot involving Augello's proposed marriage to a police inspector from another district which never takes place; and a scheme hatched by Montalbano to give over-enthusiastic police officer Catarella (Angelo Russo) something to do. The fact that Catarella spends the entire night on the task is beyond the Inspector's comprehension.

Director Alberto Sironi achieves some notable visual effects, most notably his penchant for beginning sequences with a pitch-black screen; suddenly a door opens and in comes Montalbano. The camera shoots such sequences from inside a room; Montalbano enters from the outside, creating a sinister effect that seems particularly appropriate to an episode involving such large-scale corruption.